


Worst Day Ever

by aurilly



Category: Heroes (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-11
Updated: 2008-10-10
Packaged: 2017-10-02 18:24:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurilly/pseuds/aurilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would have happened if Elle had come to Mohinder's lab in 3.01?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Worst Day Ever

A frightened female voice called through the door. "Who is it?"

After everything that had happened that day, this was the last thing Elle needed. "If you're scared that it's Sylar, announcing yourself by shouting kind of isn't the best idea," she yelled back.

Maya opened the door. "Oh. Hello."

"Yeah." Elle and Maya hadn't had much interaction since that day in the lab, but it had been enough to be tense. Elle had never gotten along very well with other women, especially attractive ones. To make matters worse, Maya seemed jealous of the easier rapport Suresh had with Elle. It didn't really make any sense. From the little Elle had seen, if Maya wanted him, she should make a move, not get mad at Elle for phoning him to make sure he was ok. While they were at the airport dropping Molly off the day before, Elle had tried to prod out of him what was going on with this chick, but Mohinder had been tight-lipped.

"Dr. Suresh isn't here," Maya said while Elle peered around.

"Yeah, I can see that. Do you know where he is?"

"No, I was going to go to the lab and check. I'll tell him to call you if I find him." Elle wasn't the most socially experienced person around, but even she could tell that Maya was giving her the cold shoulder.

"I really don't think that's the best idea right now." Elle gave Maya a brief rundown of what had happened earlier and finished with, "I think you should hide. It isn't safe here. I know a guy. He can help you. Or maybe you can help him. Either way, I think it would be safer for you to get out of the city. Sylar knows where you---"

"I can protect myself and Dr. Suresh from Sylar," Maya said with tight-lipped fury.

"And take Mohinder out in the process?"

Maya scowled but mulled this over. Elle honestly didn't care. She had other things on her mind.

"Well, he…" Maya looked suspicious, but after a moment, told Elle all. About Suresh and his formula and his experiment and everything.

"Oy," was Elle's reaction. Seriously? _Seriously?_ Hopefully it hadn't worked. But then again, Suresh was pretty good at the science stuff. What Elle had come looking for was a rational Suresh who could help her with… Elle wasn't even sure what she wanted help with anymore. After everything that had happened, she just had nowhere else to go, no other friends, no one else who gave a shit about her. They had been rather nice with one another in the previous week of their acquaintance. She had counted on him. And now this. Behind her back, Elle crossed her fingers and hoped it would be ok, that _he_ would be ok.

"So you see why he needs me." Maya was clearly still feeling antagonistic. Elle, over it by now, rolled her eyes.

"I doubt it, but whatever. He can't help you, Maya. He told me so yesterday. So, I don't know what else you're hanging around here for," she continued, and wrote a number on a scrap of paper. "Here's Noah Bennet's telephone number. Explain things to him. See ya round… except hopefully not, though, you know? I'm going to the lab. Alone." Now it was Elle's turn to lay down the law. She ran out before there was any chance of Maya turning on the waterworks.

************************************************

Elle cried the entire way to the lab. Right there in the back of the taxi that she spent 20 minutes hailing. She hated herself for it. It was weak and wimpy and pathetic, which only made her cry more. By the time she reached Reade Street, she had managed to compose herself somewhat, but the odd tear still escaped her. She prayed Mohinder wouldn't notice. She wasn't really sure why. Daddy would have wanted her to stay tough.

When Elle entered the lab, she noticed that it smelled just slightly funny. No one seemed to be in there, but all the equipment was on. Her suspicions kicked in. Maybe Sylar had…

"Suresh?" Elle asked tentatively and scowled to herself. She wasn't much better than Maya. Maybe Mrs. Petrelli was right. Maybe she was an idiot.

With a swoosh, something started careening down from the ceiling. Elle crouched into a defensive stance and thrust her hand out to send a shock. Luckily she recognized---or at least thought she recognized---Mohinder before it came out.

"Hi." He beamed at her. He seemed taller… and more shirtless… than the last time she had seen him.

Elle found herself taking a step back as he walked---_smarmed_, really---his way towards her.

Something was off. For one, why was he not dressed? What was even more unnerving was the way he was looking at her. No one had ever really looked at her that way before. Well, not anyone she knew. Gross construction workers on the street, yes. Overly earnest, respectable, nerdy new partners, no.

"Hey Suresh." Elle wasn't sure why exactly she was so nervous. He wasn't looking angry or dangerous. Just… weird. She tried to feel better with a little snark. "What's with the gymnastics? The Olympics are over."

He ignored her and stroked her face lovingly. "You've been crying," he said softly, breathing on her so close as to practically lick the tears off her face. He moved her head upwards to nuzzle the top of her throat. Being forced to look at the ceiling like that suddenly made something click.

"You really did it. You gave yourself a power."

She would never have thought it possible for him to beam brighter than he had been, but he did. "Yes, I did it. I'm a new man. I knew you would be excited for me."

Without waiting to see if she really did feel that way, he started showing off, climbing to the top of a wall using his bare hands, and then jumping down again.

"I've been cataloguing the whole experience all day. My senses are heightened, I'm stronger, faster, can climb walls. But, I've checked my reflexes, I've checked my hormone levels, I've run blood samples and otherwise I'm completely the same in every other way. I'm just as special as you are, now." And he ran a finger down her neck. Elle shivered despite herself and removed his hand from her clavicle, but found herself involuntarily holding onto his hand just a shade longer than necessary.

"I'd recheck those hormone levels, if I were you."

"The only way in which I'm different is that I'm better."

Mohinder sauntered over to the lab refrigerator to grab a carton of chocolate milk. Elle watched in dismay as he proceeded to drink straight out of it. This is when Elle became sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was off his rocker. Mohinder did _not_ drink out of cartons.

"You fucking psycho," Elle spat. "Maya was right. You've completely lost it."

"Maya is hindered by her inability to see past her own problems." Mohinder shrugged. Elle had always considered Suresh to be a bit too much of a boyscout for his own good, but she had found it endearing. This new uncaring mood was jarring, to say the least.

Elle wasn't sure which was worse. Villains on the loose or _this_.

"How _you_ doin'?" Mohinder put the milk down and came towards her, pulling her seductively towards him.

The combination of the question and the hug she had desperately needed---even if something about it felt not quite right---triggered a flood of all the emotions that the insanity of the past few minutes had distracted her from. "Not great. Dad's dead, Mohinder."

"Good, then he can't interrupt us," was Mohinder's callous and husky reply. Wow, his accent was crazy hot.

"No…" Elle shook her head, trying to rid herself of a fog in her mind. This was not going right at all. "There's more. Sylar got him. He---I---let a bunch of the detainees escape. We… we should do something about that… right?" This came out with increasing lameness as Mohinder failed to have the reaction Elle had come here hoping for, and as she found herself getting turned on by his groping.

Elle was struggling. She was fighting a losing battle with… something. Suresh was gaping quite openly at her cleavage and stroking her arms, and she realized she wasn't minding it. But part of her brain was aware that she wasn't minding it for a different reason from why she shouldn't not mind it… what? That didn't make any sense… Elle had been backing up away from him towards the kitchenette, but realized that she was slowing down. Really, what was there to worry about…? So, Suresh was finally waking up and seeing her as something more than… why was that a bad thing… isn't that what she had kind of wanted…? God, he was sexy…

Mohinder had now cupped his large hand around her head and was planting increasingly aggressive kisses up and down her neck… actually, rather further down than she was quite comfortable with. She halfheartedly tried pushing him away, but he held her even closer.

"You want this, too," Mohinder whispered into her ear just before biting it lightly. "I've seen you look at me. And the only reason I wasn't returning the looks was because your father was there… I was working … I know I don't have to explain. But god, you're beautiful. From the second I saw you. In that bikini. Let's see if we can recreate that moment…" And he ripped her shirt open and kissed her in earnest this time.

This was different from the time she had play-kissed Adam back in the day, and different from that misguided mistake with Peter. This was raw and lustful and desperate---exactly the way she had always wanted to be kissed… His hands ran down her back, unhooking her bra with one and hitching one of her legs up and around him with the other. They had backed up so that she was panting desperately with her back against the wall and her hands buried deep in his wild hair.

"Suresh…?" she panted, finally giving in to it.

"Stop calling me by my last name," he replied before driving in for another kiss.

She was so excited by the energy rushing between them that she accidentally lost control and let out a bolt of electricity into his shoulder that knocked him over and sent him flying back with a growl.

And for one moment, the spell was broken. The haze lifted and she saw exactly what was going on here. This man was sick. He was sick and the only way he wanted her was because of this. After a day in which she had died inside multiple times, this was yet another blow. What made it worse was that she felt the sting of rejection in something that actually consisted of someone trying to make it with her. And the other irony was that she felt rejected even when she had come here to see him for nothing but the friendliest and most professional kind of comfort. This wasn't what she had wanted from him. When thinking about kissing Mohinder, she had always imagined something sweet and earnest and kind of awkward---like the man himself. This was all wrong. This wasn't him at all. As he stopped reeling and she saw him coming back to himself, she knew what she had to do.

Fighting the pheromones that she could now consciously understand creeping back to her, she cracked a warning bolt of electricity in one hand and whispered, "Don't make me do something I don't want to do. We're… we're friends. I don't want to hurt you."

He was back on her as if nothing had happened. "So don't," he whispered between kisses while quickly taking his pants and briefs off.

Clearly words weren't going to get through to him. And she had to act quickly before she succumbed again to whatever the power he had over her was.

"Mmmm," she moaned encouragingly while stretching her hand over to the stove, and was scared to hear herself starting to mean it rather than just play-acting.

As he raised his head, she whacked him with the frying pan she was holding. _Hard_. He shook and went unconscious. The weight of his naked body dragged her down along with him until she found herself lying trapped underneath him, with his face still nuzzled against her breast and his arms wrapped around her body. So sexy, and yet so not.

Sigh. This was, without a doubt, the worst day ever.

 

[_Click here for more_](http://aurilly.livejournal.com/34707.html)  
 


	2. The Middle of the Night

It took awhile for Elle to even realize she was awake. She was facing a wall; her bed at home didn't lie against a wall, so she figured she was having some sort of meta dream about sleeping. In addition, there were vague sensations of things touching her, or having touched her recently. There had been an arm around her, there _had_. That was one thing she definitely wasn't used to. So obviously, dreams. With a small sigh, she lamented the lack of the all-too-recent warmth and comfortable pressure of that arm. She somehow knew that it had left her only in the past couple of seconds, and she wanted it back.

Elle shifted and moaned in sleepy confusion, trying to will herself back into the dream. She didn't know exactly why she didn't want to be awake, but she knew there was some reason that she was failing to remember right now why this state was the best place for her at this moment.

Elle continued to grumble and slide around on the bed, attempting to recapture that magical position that she felt sure would instantly plunge her into unadulterated bliss once more. But as she did so, she felt something that made her realize that this was definitely a reality. It was the sheets. As her hands happened to rub against them, she could tell that they were _not_ Pratesi's 1000-count Egyptian cotton line. This was not her bed.

It all came rushing back to her. Her father's death, Sylar's attack in the prisoner's ward, her own near-death experience, the exhausting shock blast that had saved her, Angela Petrelli's horrible decree. Remembering all that, Elle realized why she must have crashed like that. That had been the most excessive use of her power in years; all that electricity had really taken it out of her. At least she had had here to come to after being thrown out of her home like that.

No more Pratesi sheets.

It was clearly the least of her worries, but it was somehow the last straw. As she slowly turned away from the wall, Elle valiantly kept down the tears and sobs she could feel welling. Shifting her glance downwards, she could see that she was still in the skirt and bra she had worn yesterday, but not her blouse.

Oh. Right.

She remembered what here was. Mohinder and his… were there any words for what had happened? After knocking him out, it had been the work of god knows how long to finally extricate her small form from underneath his heavy, nude one.

He had been out cold, and now that she thought about it, she hoped she hadn't caused too much brain damage, because boy, had he been out for a long time. It had taken her ages to get him into the bedroom area of the loft. At the time, it had seemed an impossible task, but she'd found a kind of rolling cart. It was a job loading him on it, but once on, it wasn't too bad dragging him around and finally getting him in the bed.

Even after the unpleasantness of only a few minutes before, she had had to stop for a second as she arranged him on the bed to appreciate what a good-looking guy he was---with her rational brain, not whatever mojo he had been sucking her in with before. There hadn't been a chance to fully take it all in while he had been conscious. She'd found him adorable since day one, but _damn_. Did all guys look this good under their clothes? She had no scope for comparison, but if this is what the skinny, nerdy professor guy looked like, then Elle could only imagine what joys the entire male sex was hiding. His… it was huge!

And anyway, that hadn't been him, she had rationalized to herself as she sat down on the edge of the bed, staring at him and wondering what to do next. That was some weird, drugged-up version of him. Not that it made it all ok, but… it was forgivable somehow. She believed in him. And anyway, if she didn't forgive him, who else did she have? A friend going through something strange and aggressive was better than no friends at all. And anyway, she had already shown she could handle him.

Elle couldn't really remember what had happened next. Waiting interminably for him to wake up while keeping watch for any intruders, she must have finally slumped down beside him and fallen asleep.

Now, that she was awake again, she needed to deal with what was going on. What time was it? No idea. Where was Mohinder? No idea. He wasn't in the bed with her. Well, now that she started looking around more, Elle could see a light coming under the door to the bathroom, and hear the water running. He must be in there. Were they safe? It seemed so, at least for the moment. None of the escapees would know to come here, even if they wanted to go after her---which they might, seeing how much cause she had given them to hate her over the years. Was Mohinder safe? Well, that was a more specific question, one with multiple interpretations and therefore multiple answers.

Elle forced herself out of the bed. The floor was cold on her bare feet as she headed towards the bathroom. When she reached the door, she realized that she didn't know what to do. What if he was still using the toilet? Awkward. So she hung around for a minute before finally knocking.

"Mohinder, is everything ok in there?"

There was no answer. Elle started to panic, worrying that maybe someone _had_ broken in and was in there hurting him.

She burst through the door, hand at the ready. In a flash, Mohinder, still not wearing any clothes, spun around to face her.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, and hurriedly started pulling on a hoodie that was lying on the counter. "Can't you knock?" he asked pissily, but she could hear fear in his voice behind his attitude. It flashed through her mind how scary it must always be for him, surrounded by dangerous specials and not having any powers of his own. Until today, apparently. Weird.

"I did, actually," she replied. He finished pulling down the edges of the sweater, in what appeared to be an effort to shield as much of his body from her as possible. "Oh, come on. You don't need to hide. I've already seen it."

Mohinder looked terrified. "You--- you have?" he asked. For such a smart guy, he really could be dense sometimes.

Elle looked pointedly downwards. "Um, yeah. I think it's a little late for modesty, don't you?" she asked.

Mohinder followed her eyes and quickly covered his middle with his hands. Despite the deep blush that covered his face, he let out an inexplicable sigh of relief. "Oh, right. Of course," he said lamely. Elle followed him back into the bedroom where he started putting his underwear and pants on.

Elle reached out to turn on all the lights, but Mohinder made a weird motion and groaned as if in pain.

"What?" she asked.

"Can we keep most of those off, actually?" he asked. "It's… I don't know. I don't think I can handle too many lights right now."

Elle shrugged, but the odd request got her shackles up again. "Okay, I guess."

Mohinder seemed to read her mind and cringed. "I'm sorry. I'm not planning to do anything that… anything that sometimes requires the lights to be off."

This was horribly awkward. "Alright," Elle replied, feeling reassured. She turned all but one off again, and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Do you have an extra shirt anywhere? Mine's kind of… destroyed," she asked shyly.

"Of course. I'm…" Mohinder trailed off and went rummaging for an extra jumper, which he tossed her. While she was putting it on, he straddled a chair near the bed and rested his head on the back of it, looking in her direction, but not directly at her.

They sat in silence for a few moments.

"So… is there anything I should know about? Anything that happened that I don't remember?" he finally asked hesitantly.

"You mean after I knocked you out?"

Mohinder looked at her with undisguised relief. "So that was caused by you? I didn't fall unconscious because of a side effect from the serum?"

"Nope, you can thank good old Farberware for saving you from yourself."

"Well, that's certainly good news." Mohinder sighed and pulled on his sweater some more. "But even still…"

Elle felt a little warm inside to see how deeply uncomfortable and remorseful Mohinder looked. She knew exactly what he wanted to say, and it was reassuring to see how positively tongue-tied he was. The person she knew had returned. However, she was still slightly traumatized, and didn't want to let him off easy.

"I'm incredibly sorry about what happened before. I don't know what to say. It was so far out of line that I don't know how to excuse it, and now that it's over I don't know what caused me to… it could be a mind-altering side effect… for example the rush of adrenaline to the part of the brain that---"

"You can't use science-babble to get out of this one, doc," Elle taunted even though she was no longer that upset. It worked, because he became even more flustered.

"I know. I can't. I really can't apologize enough. My behavior was disgusting and reprehensible. I don't know what came over me. I would never in a million years have touched---"

"Alright, you don't need to lay it on _that_ thick. Sheesh," Elle pouted. It was like he was purposefully rubbing it in her face.

"What do you mean?" he asked, cluelessly.

Elle rolled her eyes. "Ugh. Nothing. Anyway, I think there might be a side effect, other than the personality lobotomy. You were sort of doing it to me."

Mohinder visibly cringed. "I know. I'm trying to apologize for my horrific---"

Elle interrupted him. "No, I'm not talking about that right now. I mean, you were making me do it, too. Be into it. Well, at least into it in a way that… oh whatever." Elle had never had a conversation like this before, so she definitely didn't know how to talk about circumstances as uniquely strange as this particular one. "It only stopped when I shocked you and you were kind of out of it for a second."

Mohinder thought about this and responded very carefully and softly. "I see. So what I took as you being interested was actually only…"

"---the same way I take you being interested, I guess. Like… not," she replied, unable to keep the sadness completely out of her voice, despite how icky the whole thing had actually been. To make herself feel better, she changed tack and scolded him. "So, you do know that this was spectacularly stupid, right? Maya told me what you did. Of all the bone-headed---"

"I know," Mohinder quietly agreed.

Elle was surprised. It hadn't taken her long to understand that Suresh was a stubborn type who didn't like to admit being wrong.

"You do?"

"Yes, it was reckless of me, selfish and misguided."

"Well, at least you're aware. But you did all those tests, right? So, other than what happened earlier, it should be ok, right? I mean, you're clearly better now. And now… now you're one of us. Totally not fair, by the way, but welcome to the club, I guess," she said brightly.

"Mmmm," he replied noncommittally. Elle figured he was still embarrassed. Maybe now wasn't the time to pump him for information on what his powers were. In the morning, she told herself.

"Don't worry about it. Really, Mohinder," she said, and reached over to pat him comfortingly on the back. He flinched and she quickly withdrew her hand, feeling dismissed.

He shook his head. "Sorry," he apologized, and she wasn't quite sure for what. "So… I'm remembering that you were trying to tell me what happened to you out in Hartsdale, but then we were…" In the darkness, Elle could see Mohinder blushing again.

"Yeah," she replied, taking pity on him. Elle explained everything in more detail, and this time added how she'd sent Maya away to find Bennet.

Mohinder was speechless for awhile, and seemed gratifyingly more involved in her than in larger concerns about Bennet, Maya, and the escapees. "I'm so sorry, Elle. I'm glad you came to me. And I'm even more sorry now that I wasn't able to be there for you at the time."

"S'ok. You're back now. So… I can stay for awhile? Until I figure something out?"

She was hurt to see a flash of panic cross Mohinder's face, but he quickly rearranged his features. "Of course. As long as you need to. Maybe it would be best if you stayed in the apartment, though, and just came in to see me from time to time. But not until morning, of course. I'll probably be spending most of my time here, studying what all of this means."

Elle cracked a small smile. "Thanks. I'll be alright." But she knew that he knew she was lying.

They sat quietly for a minute. Finally Mohinder stood up.

"Well, I suppose I should get back to work," he said briskly and unconvincingly. "You should get some rest. I'll shut the door so as not to disturb you."

For some reason, Elle couldn't bear the thought of being alone just then. "Work? Now? It's 1:30am. Come back to bed."

Mohinder looked confused. "Well, that certainly sounds…" he started to quip. Elle ignored both him and any lewd interpretation of her words.

"Please?"

Mohinder leaned into her and stared into her eyes for a moment. He must have seen the tears that were about burst forth, as well as the trust that was there.

"Alright," he acquiesced. "But I'm getting up early. And it'll be a full day."

"Ok," Elle said quietly as she scooted back towards the wall. Mohinder turned the light off and followed her into the bed, pulling the covers over both of them.

"Goodnight," she whispered into the darkness.

"Goodnight, Elle," he whispered back. A minute passed and then he added, "Actually, maybe sleep is a good idea right now, for both of us."

And then the arm was back around her.


End file.
